Review Details

Fluance XL7F Floorstanding Speakers

Average Customer Rating:

Rating:
99 % of 100

Reference Series High Performance Three-way Floorstanding Loudspeakers

Product Rating:

Product Rating
Overall Performance
100%

Product Review (submitted on November 20, 2015):

I've had these speakers for about 4 days, I got them for an absolute steal on a promotional sale for $300. There is no way Fluance made money selling these speakers to me for that price, they lost money, so as a thankyou I will write about them and let people know what they are like. For the price they are asking a little under $500 they are an absolute steal. There is nothing anywhere you can buy of this quality for that much money. They look good, the piano black of the fronts matches with my TV while the cherry/mahogany finish matches with my furniture, they look high end. The white drivers are a nice touch, they add a good looking contrast that doesn't overpower, just makes them classy, they took time making these look right for your living room. They are big, if you have a wife you might want to buy them first and tell her when they are in your house, because otherwise she will tell you to get BOSE. They also require good amplification. Fluance rates them as 4ohm 80-200 Watts. I think 80 is a tad high but I think I they give that rating because they aren't expensive speakers to buy, so the people that buy them probably don't have expensive equipment, and if you run them with a cheap amp you may damage them and blow up your amp (and since there's a lifetime warranty that can't be good for business). Manufacturers also giving wildly high specs for pieces of crap amp, a general rule of thunmb is to make sure an amp is rated for at least two cahennels between 20-20000 khz (not 1 channel at 1KHZ) with a distortion rate of around 0.08. If your amp does that with 80 watts and weighs 20lbs or more you are most likely going to be fine (it's tough because manufacturers stop rating for 4ohm speakers... I've got my eye on the Harman Kardon 3490, which at 150 watts per channel 4 ohm steady and around $300, looks like the one to get). As for the sound, well... It's weird, I have albums that I've always thought were recorded badly as they sounded subdued on my speakers, for instance I have Gomez "Liquid Skin" and Gomez "Bring it on".. to me liquid skin sounded alive and bring it on sounded flat and subdued, plugging the same album into these speakers, Bring it on is amazing, to the point I've never heard it before, Liquid skin sounds the same. Maybe this is something to do with the "loudness war" that recording engineers are engaged in, I don't know, but it is a treat to go back and listen to albums I've always thought lacked oomph and hear them properly. Another good one is Bebel Gilbertos tanto tempo, it's like she is in the room singing, I've listened to that album 5 times in the last 4 days, I can't get enough. These speakers bring out everything in the music, you can hear people talking at the start of songs. There is also phenomenal seperaration in instruments, each instrument seems like it occupies a different space to the other, an effect I've never heard with anybodys setup, sure it probably exists, but hey, I'm shopping for $500 speakers... A brilliant sound stage too. Since I plugged these in I've literally spent every free hour I've had listening to music, probably upsetting my neighbours. The bass is great, I actually turned it down a couple of decibels in order to not annoy my neighbours... It isn't boomy tricked out honda bass, it's the bass the artists wanted you to hear. Yes in short order these speakers are phenomenal, you do hear the brushes on drums bouncing off. The build quality is very high, I'd give it a 9 out of ten, only saying that because I notice the screws in the tweeter were't exactly parallel on my right speaker, not a big deal unless you are a little OCD like me, other than that these do not look like cheap speakers, they look like speakers you see in high lifestyle mags in setups you've never seen let alone can afford. I honestly don't know how Fluance actually make any money. obviously no money goes to promotions or advertising, the money goes to the speakers and their profit margins must be razor thin. They're probably relying on word of mouth, which makes sense as when you get something this good for so cheap you want top tell everyone.I had a 5.1 system before (actually the AVHTB+) which I liked it a lot and which is why I got these, but now I realise that there is no reason for surround sound, surround sound is a gimmick that is there to make up for quality 2.0. If you have 2 good towers and a good amp that is more than you need. If you are considering buying these I'd say stop thinking and pull the trigger, you won't be sorry.

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